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Master Comics Vol 1 31
Supporting Characters: * Adversaries: * aka Filpot * Hans, a German spy * Mako, a Japanese spy * unnamed U-Boat Commander * other Nazi submariners * Japanese agents Other Characters: * Thomas Mills (ambassador) * Dolores Mills (ambassador's daughter) Locations: * Camp Gaines * port city near Camp Gaines | Writer2_1 = | Penciler2_1 = Jack Binder | Inker2_1 = Jack Binder | StoryTitle2 = Bulletman: "The Swing King" | Synopsis2 = Jimmy Shay, a starving musician living in a dingy garret, writes a pop song that he believes will make him a fortune, but he sells it to a crooked publisher (Max Curt) who scams him out of the rights. A few weeks later his song is on all the radio playlists and in all the record stores, but he's still starving. Shay snaps, and invades Curt's gaudy mansion, and hangs him in his own fancy bedroom. He's "swinging" now, gloats Shay. Soon at police HQ Sergeant Kent comes into the forensics lab and tells Jim Barr to accompany him on the investigation of Curt's death; Susan Kent is there too and she accompanies them. This is interrupted with more news; bandleader Jay Jones has been found in his dressing room, also "swinging" on a noose. Jim slips away and changes clothes and flies to the new crime scene, while Susan stays behind to monitor the first investigation and report developments. At Jones' murder scene, a record player is playing "You Gotta Be Neat," the stolen song, which come to think of it was also left playing at Curt's murder scene, and which also come to think of it is the title of a new musical comedy opening that very night in a theater in the same town. Bulletman flies there and arrives in the nick of time to stop Shay from murdering a famous girl singer; there's a short fight but the wily killer flees thru the chorus girl's dressing room and Bulletman is too embarrassed to pursue him there. Meanwhile Susan has seen and overheard enough clues to figure out what's going on and she flies to Shay's dumpy apartment address to look around. Returning home, Shay sees the light on in his room, sneaks in thru a window, konks Bulletgirl unconscious, and hangs her from a rafter in his own room. A few hours later Jim Barr notices that she's not at police HQ, finds Shay's address, makes the connection, and flies to the scene of Susan's hanging; he's overcome with grief. But wait! She wakes up! He was only half unconscious, thanks to her helmet, and only half strangled, thanks to partially using the helmet's antigravity system. They compare notes and figure that the next murder target will be Singing Sanders, at the local radio station, and they fly there. Much punching and shooting and chasing ensues, with Shay finally cornered atop the transmitting tower, which he falls off of, catching his neck on an electric line, fatally. Closing panel is an advertisement for "Jungle Girl or the Perils of Nyoka", both a new Republic serial and a Fawcett comic book. | Appearing2 = Featured Characters * Supporting Characters: * Adversaries: * * Max Curt, crooked music publisher Other Characters: * Locations: * Items: * Vehicles: * | Writer3_1 = | Penciler3_1 = Phil Bard | Inker3_1 = Phil Bard | StoryTitle3 = Minute Man Leads a Commando Night Raid | Synopsis3 = Private Jack Weston arrives at the American Expeditionary Force's encampment, from which, that very night, a hand-picked flying commando squadron is headed by air into Czechoslovakia for a raid. Jack's tentmate Joe Czermack wants to go; his wife and child are in that country, but orders are orders. Jack changes into his Minute Man costume and stows away aboard one of the 2-engine bombers. The parachute attack is detected by the Nazis; the captain catches a bullet on the way down. Unarmed costumed masked Minute Man charges into the fray, overrunning a machine gun nest with his fists, then resorting to using a hand grenade to blow up an ammo dump. Minute Man takes it upon himself to declare the mission accomplished and orders the commandos to rally at the pick-up zone; they cheer. Minute Man hangs back and changes back into Private Weston's uniform, and is scurrying to catch up to his unit when he meets a little girl, and her mother, who of course turns out to be Joe Czermack's family. The mother is sad because her father is a hostage of the Nazis and now that the ammo dump has been blown up he'll certainly be shot. Jack changes clothes again; he's got a big idea. At dawn, as the Nazis prepare to do their execution, Minute Man shows up on the wall of their compound with a .30-cal. machine gun and mows down the firing squad. He tells the old man to get his daughter and granddaughter and meet him at the German airfield, which they do. Minute Man punches out two sentries with one punch, and steals a Focke-Wulf, into which his three passengers also somehow fit, and flies it to the U.S. commando base, where they don't shoot him down because of a signal that he gives them, by which the U.S. soldiers know that this is Pvt Weston flying the German plane. He lands and the Czermacks are reunited while Minute Man gets out of the plane. It's not clear whether his masked identity is still a secret at this point. | Appearing3 = Featured Characters * Supporting Characters: * Adversaries: * Nazi soldiers Other Characters: * Joe Czermack * Olga Czermack, her daughter, and her father Locations: * AEF encampment in Europe * occupied Czechoslovakia Items: * Vehicles: * | Writer4_1 = | Penciler4_1 = | Inker4_1 = | StoryTitle4 = The Double of El Carim | Synopsis4 = El Carim is entertaining at an Army officers' club on payday night. Or is he? A trick is played on the officers and their wages are stolen. Just as the soldiers are figuring out what happened, the real El Carim walks into the building, and meets his exact double on his way out. The double escapes down a fire-escape, just before the angry officers crowd into the room and cover El Carim with a pistol. They don't buy his story, and neither does the cop who quickly arrives to arrest him. El Carim has no time for this; he's got a big show for the troops in half an hour at Madison Square Garden, so he says "CIGAM!" and vanishes, leaving Officer O'Toole holding only his bowtie and the collar of his shirt. The cops go to M.S.G. to bust El Carim, and the doppleganger goes there to rob the box office, some confusion and foot- pursuit ensues, until El Carim confronts the impostor in the treasurer's office. After a short pistol-versus-rapier duel, the con-man Slippery Snead flees but is quickly caught. | Appearing4 = Featured Characters * Supporting Characters: * Adversaries: * Slippery Snead, "cleverest impostor in the rogues' gallery" Other Characters: * several U.S.Army officers * Officer O'Toole and other NYPD cops Locations: * New York City ** An Army base ** Madison Square Garden Items: * Vehicles: * | Writer5_1 = | Penciler5_1 = Ralph Carlson | Inker5_1 = Ralph Carlson | StoryTitle5 = Buck Jones, Frontier Marshall: "The Black Gauntlet Gang" | Synopsis5 = | Appearing5 = Featured Characters * Buck Jones, Frontier Marshall Supporting Characters: * Adversaries: * Other Characters: * Locations: * Items: * Vehicles: * | Writer6_1 = | Penciler6_1 = Clem Weisbecker | Inker6_1 = Clem Weisbecker | StoryTitle6 = Companions Three: "The Nazi Invasion of Greenland" | Synopsis6 = Nazis invade Greenland and cruelly oppress the people. The Companions Three fly there in a seaplane; Eskimos joyously greet them with a feast of whale blubber; it's an awkward moment. The proceed inland to a trading post, where Anderson the trader is using a radio to keep the Allied convoys and warships posted on weather conditions. Just then some German submariners show up to commandeer this guy's transmitter in order to set a trap for some cargo ships. Don, Nifty, Spike, and the trader's daughter Sigrid are tied to chairs in the next room then left unguarded; pretty quickly they escape. Sigrid lures one lonely seaman into the room and the Companions jump him. They all run for their kayak to return to the Eskimo village for help; one German spots them running down the hill, Anderson takes advantage of the momentary distraction to transmit a warning to the Merchant Marine, which act of bravery gets him shot by the Nazi captain. The boys plus Sigrid get back to the village, borrow a whole lot of whale blubber, and kayak their way out to the surfaced U-boat, which seems to have no topside watch posted. They drop a whole lot of blubber down the top hatch into the tightly-enclosed space, and it smells really really bad. The Germans flee up the ladder, directly into the grasp of the Companions, who beat them up and capture them. The Eskimos take the submariners back to their village while their chief, Krupik, accompanies the boys back to the trading post, where they find old Anderson, not quite dead after all, and the German captain's party gone. There are tracks outside, but Krupik senses a trap. They sneak around another way, and push the two remaining Germans into the bay. Then some Coast Guard planes arrive, and take charge of the situation, and the Companions Three get back into their seaplane and return home. | Appearing6 = Featured Characters * ** Don ** Nifty ** Spike Supporting Characters: * Adversaries: * Other Characters: * Chief Krupik * Anderson the trading post proprietor * Sigrid, Anderson's daughter Locations: * Greenland ** Gottsshabn Bay *** an Eskimo village *** a trading post Items: * Vehicles: * | Notes = * "The Case of the Missing Ambassador" is reprinted in Shazam Family Archives, Volume 1. | Trivia = | Recommended = | Links = * Master Comics #31 entire issue * Master Comics #31 index entry }}